Yesterday, city councillor Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) underwent surgery to remove the cancerous tumour from his abdomen. The procedure was long and difficult—it required four surgeons—but early signs are positive. The councillor has been instructed to rest each for the next couple of months as he recovers from the surgery. Captain John’s restaurant […]

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Yesterday, city councillor Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) underwent surgery to remove the cancerous tumour from his abdomen. The procedure was long and difficult—it required four surgeons—but early signs are positive. The councillor has been instructed to rest each for the next couple of months as he recovers from the surgery.

Captain John’s restaurant may finally see the last chapter in her long saga by the end of the month. The beleaguered former waterfront eatery has been mired in legal challenges over the past few years, as owner John Letnik owes more than $1 million in back taxes. The ship is reportedly filled with asbestos, oily water, and other unsavoury materials, making moving it out of the harbour for demolition all the more challenging.

More than 76,000 Ontario English elementary public-school board teachers are on a work-to-rule campaign, and negotiations are off to a rough start. The two sides were called back by a mediator to continue talks, but according to the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, those ended quickly when the Province appeared unwilling to change its initial offer. The work-to-rule campaign is incremental, and representatives for the ETFO say the efforts will increase until their demands are met. The ETFO, which has been involved in contract negotiations for the past eight months, says its priority issue is working conditions for teachers.

When the Kiriakou family took over the Wexford Restaurant in May 1958, they likely had little idea that nearly 60 years later a sign in their parking would proudly boast about the billions of eggs cracked and oranges juiced. Under three generations of family ownership, the restaurant has fed plenty of hungry Scarberians and, in […]

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Source: Don Mills Mirror, May 20, 1964.

When the Kiriakou family took over the Wexford Restaurant in May 1958, they likely had little idea that nearly 60 years later a sign in their parking would proudly boast about the billions of eggs cracked and oranges juiced. Under three generations of family ownership, the restaurant has fed plenty of hungry Scarberians and, in the process, became a local institution.

Kiriakos “Jerry” Kiriakou emigrated to Canada from Vevi, Greece around 1950. Over the course of the next few years he gradually brought over the rest of his family. Saving money earned through dishwashing, Jerry bought a fish-and-chip shop on the south side of Lawrence, but felt that Wexford Heights Plaza on the north side presented a better opportunity. When the 50-seat Wexford Restaurant was put up for sale, the family purchased it, with Jerry’s sons Tom and Anthony in charge. Two decades later, having built up substantial real estate holdings elsewhere in Metro Toronto, the family bought the plaza.

Through three generations of Kiriakou ownership, the restaurant has expanded to 300 seats. Among the additions was a dining lounge opened in 1983 that was named in honour of Jerry (who is also memorialized with a plaque). The family name was also bestowed on a residential street near Lawrence Avenue and Kennedy Road, located just off Mike Myers Drive.

Source: Toronto Star, July 19, 1983.

While surveying diners across the city in 2000, Star writer Jon Filson gave a sense of the hubbub during a busy weekend at the Wexford.

Breakfast at the Wexford Restaurant in Scarborough is the best time anyone can have anywhere. At noon on Sunday the background buzz is louder and at least as entertaining as a patrol car’s squawk box on a Saturday night. Calm, firm waitress voices take charge: “Ordering over easy, with sausage and brown,” but occasionally a more urgent shriek comes through: “Johnny, I said ham with that, Johnny! Ham, Johnny, ham! Johnn-eeey…” Most of the voices come in bits and pieces, garbled by the sizzle from a massive grill manned by four heroic cooks wearing peaked white caps. Giddy customers are filling stools and packing into booths, and the whole bustling place seems totally out of control, without ever being out of control in the slightest.

Customers and staff have long shot the breeze over the topics of the day, which has made the Wexford a popular spot for campaigning politicians. When mayor Mel Lastman visited in November 2000 to boost the re-election hopes of Lorenzo Berardinetti in Ward 37 (husband of current Ward 35 councillor Michelle Berardinetti), the incumbent councillor observed that “he’s not here to make speeches or unveil a moose, he’s just having some eggs and meeting people doing the same thing.” A picture taken of Rob Ford holding up a paper coffee cup during the 2010 election campaign found a place of honour on a pillar near the cash register. During the 2014 mayoral race, the Ford brothers ran their local headquarters in the plaza a few doors down from the restaurant.

As the National Post’s Peter Kuitenbrower put it during anniversary celebrations in 2008, the Wexford is “a centre of Scarborough power and Scarborough pride.”

Additional material from the June 15, 2006, May 6, 2008, and November 23, 2013 editions of the National Post; and the December 26, 1977, November 21, 1996, November 5, 2000, and November 29, 2000 editions of the Toronto Star.

The preliminary hearing for Sandro Lisi’s extortion case wrapped up today at old city hall, and the case was committed to trial. Both the prosecution and defence agreed the Crown presented sufficient evidence in almost two weeks of preliminary hearings to proceed to the next stage. Lisi is scheduled to appear at in court on […]

The preliminary hearing for Sandro Lisi’s extortion case wrapped up today at old city hall, and the case was committed to trial. Both the prosecution and defence agreed the Crown presented sufficient evidence in almost two weeks of preliminary hearings to proceed to the next stage. Lisi is scheduled to appear at in court on May 27, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. to set a date for the trial to begin.

Lisi faces an extortion charge for alleged statements made to Liban Siyad in an effort to retrieve the video of former mayor Rob Ford apparently smoking crack cocaine. Lisi is a friend and former driver to Ford.

The contents of the preliminary hearing are under a strict s. 539 publication ban, which means Torontoist can’t tell you what was said or by whom until the case concludes. Check out our Lisi case primer for more.

In a press conference outside Mount Sinai hospital, Rob Ford announced that his tumour is operable. Ford is scheduled to have an eight to 10 hour operation on May 11. He will take four months off to recover from the surgery. The former mayor is now the councillor for Ward 2, Etobicoke North, having dropped […]

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Rob Ford announces his diagnosis in a screenshot from CP24.

In a press conference outside Mount Sinai hospital, Rob Ford announced that his tumour is operable.

Ford is scheduled to have an eight to 10 hour operation on May 11. He will take four months off to recover from the surgery.

The former mayor is now the councillor for Ward 2, Etobicoke North, having dropped out of the mayoral race in September 2014 after learning that he had a malignant abdominal tumour. At 12 centimetres—the size of a grapefruit—the tumour was very large, and multiple rounds of chemotherapy have reduced its size to 5.6 centimetres. While it is an improvement, the tumour is also larger than the 3.5 centimetres doctors hoped for.

Ford thanked God, hospital staff, his family, and well-wishers for their support, and said that he didn’t get much sleep the night before.

The councillor returned to the ongoing council session after the presser.

]]>http://torontoist.com/2015/04/rob-ford-scheduled-to-have-surgery-in-may/feed/6Extra, Extra: Local Sinkhole Eats Jaguar, Ghastly Commute Times for Torontonians, and the Mayor Gets Grumpy With That One Councillorhttp://torontoist.com/2015/04/extra-extra-local-sinkhole-eats-jaguar-ghastly-commute-times-for-torontoians-and-the-mayor-gets-grumpy-with-that-one-councillor/
http://torontoist.com/2015/04/extra-extra-local-sinkhole-eats-jaguar-ghastly-commute-times-for-torontoians-and-the-mayor-gets-grumpy-with-that-one-councillor/#commentsWed, 01 Apr 2015 21:07:48 +0000http://torontoist.com/?p=348378

Every weekday’s end, we collect just about everything you ought to care about or ought not to miss. In Saskatoon we call this a #Pothole ………….. #Toronto sinkhole swallows Jaguar http://t.co/XUE8QdOIsk — Darren Hill (@darrenhill1) April 1, 2015 A local Jaguar driver was caught off guard when a sinkhole opened up and swallowed his car […]

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A local Jaguar driver was caught off guard when a sinkhole opened up and swallowed his car this morning near Black Creek Drive and Eglinton Avenue West. Who ever said asphalt can’t have class hangups?

Torontonians spend a lot of time complaining about our commutes. Good news: according to a new report, we have every right to! Amsterdam-based TomTom released its fifth annual traffic index and found that the average commuter lost 84 hours stuck in trafficeach year. That’s three and a half days, or a long weekend’s worth, of frustration. Joy!

Finally, Mayor John Tory is pretty darn tired of the attempts by the councillor from Ward 2 to dispense advice about the TTC. Subways, subways, subways? No, no, no.

The preliminary hearing into the extortion court case against Rob Ford’s friend and former driver Sandro Lisi begins this morning. Lisi is accused of extorting two men in connection to the Rob Ford crack video. He allegedly threatened to kill both them and members of their community. Preliminary hearings set out the parameters for criminal […]

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The preliminary hearing into the extortion court case against Rob Ford’s friend and former driver Sandro Lisi begins this morning.

Lisi is accused of extorting two men in connection to the Rob Ford crack video. He allegedly threatened to kill both them and members of their community.

Preliminary hearings set out the parameters for criminal trials. It is expected that Lisi’s hearing will be placed under a publication ban, which is typical.

Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) has been subpoenaed as a potential witness in the case. The former mayor is vacationing in Jamaica at the moment. If he is called to the stand, it could be on April 13. Thus far, Ford has refused to co-operate with the police. However, legal experts say Ford can’t be prosecuted for any incriminatory evidence he may give as a witness.

The high-profile court case in room 123 of Old City Hall comes against an increasingly bizarre backdrop. In the past couple of weeks, Ford has taken to auctioning “memorabilia” on eBay, some of which is associated with his crack infamy. Included among the items are the football tie he wore when he admitted to smoking crack, and the sweater he wore in a famous photo with the late Anthony Smith.

News also recently emerged that Lisi was offered a tell-all book deal worth $500,000 before it was taken off the table. Ford claimed in a radio interview not to be concerned, and that he has no secrets to hide.

“If you want to go write a book, knock yourself out…I am looking right now in my closet, I think I have two hangers left in my closet. Everything is out there that people want to know. People already heard all the stories.” —Councillor Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North), speaks to Newstalk 1010 host […]

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“If you want to go write a book, knock yourself out…I am looking right now in my closet, I think I have two hangers left in my closet. Everything is out there that people want to know. People already heard all the stories.”

Was Rob Ford the target of an assassination plot? Well…maybe. A man named Raed Jaser is alleged to have had the ex-mayor in his crosshairs, reportedly telling an undercover FBI agent that because “the Toronto mayor travels on the subway system,” he made for an easy target. Jaser, along with his co-accused friend Chiheb Esseghaier, […]

Was Rob Ford the target of an assassination plot? Well…maybe. A man named Raed Jaser is alleged to have had the ex-mayor in his crosshairs, reportedly telling an undercover FBI agent that because “the Toronto mayor travels on the subway system,” he made for an easy target. Jaser, along with his co-accused friend Chiheb Esseghaier, is currently standing trial in Toronto.

A participatory budgeting pilot project is set to launch in Wards 33 (Don Valley East), 35 (Scarborough Southwest), and 12 (York South-Weston), allowing the respective communities to collectively allocate up to $150,000 of capital funding each for local improvement projects. The TCHC already uses participatory budgeting, as does Boston, Paris, New York and San Francisco.

The 2015 Field Trip festival lineupcame out today, boasting headliners My Morning Jacket and Alabama Shakes and–for those aging Millennials–a dose of Sharon and Bram (but not Lois). The annual early-summer music and arts bash held at Fort York and Garrison Common was borne of the Arts & Crafts record label’s 10th anniversary celebration in 2013.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains—the people, places, things, and ideas that have had the most positive and negative impacts on the city over the past 12 months. Cast your ballot until 5 p.m. on December 30. At noon on December 31, we’ll reveal your choices for Toronto’s Superhero and […]

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Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains—the people, places, things, and ideas that have had the most positive and negative impacts on the city over the past 12 months. Cast your ballot until 5 p.m. on December 30. At noon on December 31, we’ll reveal your choices for Toronto’s Superhero and Supervillain of the year.

The best part of Joe Killoran‘s magnificent, bare-chested encounter with Rob Ford at the East York Canada Day parade this summer came in the first few seconds of the svelte-looking teacher’s spontaneous diatribe. Killoran, now better known as #ShirtlessJogger, didn’t let the then-mayor’s recent return from rehab distract him from aiming his attack exactly where it was most needed: Ford’s outsized and largely baseless reputation for defending taxpayers.

“What about my taxpayer dollars you give to your own business?” Killoran began, slipping through the crowd and sidling up to the mayor. Ford’s face instantly froze into the smiling grimace he’d already worn for much of the parade, as hecklers called out to him from lawns and sidewalks.

But just when you thought this unexpected confrontation would descend into ugly spectacle, Killoran did something incredible—he referenced a conflict-of-interest case dating all the way back to the beginning of Ford’s mayoralty. During his first two years in office, Rob worked to help Apollo Health and Beauty Care, a valuable client of the Ford family’s label and tag business, obtain more land for a parking lot, lobby for tax breaks, and deal with a sewage-spill investigation. While those efforts were apparently unsuccessful, Killoran rightly demanded, “What about Apollo Beauty?” before launching into the refrain that resounded across news outlets and Twitter feeds for days to come: “Answer the questions!”

What makes Killoran’s point about Rob’s hypocrisy and back-room dealing so beautiful is all the other points he didn’t make. By the time Killoran jogged inadvertently into a face-off with the Ford brothers, the crack saga and all its related scandals had so clouded over the mayoralty, one could almost forget there was an actual job associated with it. Doug wasn’t above deflecting the criticism, accusing Killoran of making racial slurs against Rob. “You can be racist against people that eat little red apples,” Doug explained afterward. That outlandish defence only served to confirm what the rest of us already knew—that the Shirtless Jogger had hit the Fords where it hurt.

But maybe the best part of this showdown wasn’t Killoran’s incisive focus on the most important issues. Maybe it was the fact that he straightforwardly named Rob a “corrupt, lying, racist, homophobe.” Or maybe it was how he swatted away the business card that was offered to him. Or it could have been the way the CBC cameraperson panned appraisingly up and down Killoran’s body when he exclaimed, “Do I look like I’m part of a campaign?” Or it might have been watching all those smug, dismissive grins die on the faces of the Fords and their supporters as Killoran said his piece. Whatever the case, for channelling his outrage into a stream of intelligent and passionate criticism, and for doing what many wanted to do better than most could have hoped to do it, the Shirtless Jogger is a true Toronto hero of 2014.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains—the people, places, things, and ideas that have had the most positive and negative impacts on the city over the past 12 months. Cast your ballot until 5 p.m. on December 30. At noon on December 31, we’ll reveal your choices for Toronto’s Superhero and […]

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Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains—the people, places, things, and ideas that have had the most positive and negative impacts on the city over the past 12 months. Cast your ballot until 5 p.m. on December 30. At noon on December 31, we’ll reveal your choices for Toronto’s Superhero and Supervillain of the year.

“Diversity Our Strength.” Toronto’s official motto reflects our idealized image of the city as a shining beacon of multiculturalism and tolerance. Yet, as Rob Ford’s mayoralty proved, a significant segment of the population finds bigotry and divisiveness palatable.

Public displays of intolerance marred the recent municipal election campaign. During the mayoral race, Olivia Chow faced a steady stream of slurs about her ethnicity. Some questioned her speaking ability, referencing her accent and the slow speed of her talking—the latter the result of partial facial paralysis. During a debate at York Memorial High School, a heckler told Chow to go back to China. The Sun lowered the conversation by publishing an Andy Donato cartoon depicting a Mao-suited Chow riding the coattails of her late husband Jack Layton (the paper lamely defended it by claiming it always depicted NDPers in the garb preferred by historic Chinese dictators). Whatever your opinion of Chow’s campaign, these attacks were despicable.

So too was the anti-Muslim bigotry that reared its head in ward races. Running in the heart of Ford Nation, Ward 2 candidate Munira Abukar saw her campaign signs defaced with messages such as “Go Back Home.” In Ward 10 (York Centre), TDSB trustee candidate Ausma Malik was targeted by opponents who tried to depict her as a supporter of fundamentalists. Candidates also reported car window smashings and garbage tossed on volunteers.

In the wake of these incidents, front-running candidates had little or nothing to add. As Torontoist’s Desmond Cole observed, “If diversity is our strength, why do political candidates believe they will lose ground for publicly condemning racism?” Pandering to the basest instincts of some voters encourages the ignorant and intolerant and demeans our public discourse—and so does remaining silent.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains—the people, places, things, and ideas that have had the most positive and negative impacts on the city over the past 12 months. Cast your ballot until 5 p.m. on December 30. At noon on December 31, we’ll reveal your choices for Toronto’s Superhero and […]

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Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains—the people, places, things, and ideas that have had the most positive and negative impacts on the city over the past 12 months. Cast your ballot until 5 p.m. on December 30. At noon on December 31, we’ll reveal your choices for Toronto’s Superhero and Supervillain of the year.

Doug Ford, we hardly knew ye—after all, you didn’t show up to work much this year, or any other year since you took office in 2010 for the first and hopefully last time—but we certainly know enough to peg you as a villain.

And it’s not just the number of fatuous comments and outrageous lies that astounds—the efficiency with which you delivered them is equally impressive. There was that homophobic rant about the Pride Parade, during which you mentioned “buck-naked men” five times in four minutes. There was the week during which you invoked “jihad” on two separate occasions. There was that time you lied (or were disingenuous, to borrow a term) 19 times in a three-and-a-half–minute speech about transit.

But it’s your contempt for all Torontonians (as distinguished from your contempt for specific groups of Torontonians) that rankles most—because it’s surely contempt that drove you to sign up at the last minute to run for mayor despite having previously stated that you couldn’t wait to leave City Hall behind, just as it’s contempt that instilled in you the evident belief that you were entitled, like some hickish Habsburg, to the mayor’s seat simply by virtue of your last name.

Thankfully, Torontonians turned up in record numbers on October 27 to put an end to the Ford era, and, seeing the writing on the wall, you turned up a month later to put a spike in your Ontario PC leadership aspirations. But the ill will you fomented and the divisiveness you caused during your mercifully short political career are unforgivable.

And so, Doug Ford, for being a blithering, bigoted bully full of contempt and bereft of shame, we nominate you for 2014 Supervillain of the Year.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains—the people, places, things, and ideas that have had the most positive and negative impacts on the city over the past 12 months. Cast your ballot until 5 p.m. on December 30. At noon on December 31, we’ll reveal your choices for Toronto’s Superhero and […]

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Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains—the people, places, things, and ideas that have had the most positive and negative impacts on the city over the past 12 months. Cast your ballot until 5 p.m. on December 30. At noon on December 31, we’ll reveal your choices for Toronto’s Superhero and Supervillain of the year.

So here we are again: Rob Ford has been nominated as a Villain for a record-breaking fifth year in a row.

This Villain entry for Ford may not be quite as long as some from previous years. In part, that’s because he’s not mayor any more; in part, it’s because Rob Ford spent a fair amount of time in 2014 out of the public eye, first when he went to rehab (even if it appears likely that he took it about as seriously as he has taken every aspect of his public life) and then when he withdrew from the mayoral race to undergo chemotherapy for the cancer that is threatening his life. Rob Ford managed to be slightly less embarrassing, incompetent, and harmful to this city, if only by default.

And when he got caught once again uttering ethnic slurs, allegedly smoking crack, and saying he wanted to “jam” Karen Stintz, he went to rehab—and came back offering insincere, self-serving apologies. And then, of course, we all found out he had cancer, so Rob Ford just decided to count on Ford Nation giving him the council seat in Ward 2—a bet that turned out to be well-advised—because he was too sick to be mayor, but apparently not too sick to be a city councillor. (He is already making noises about how what he really wants to do is run for mayor again in 2018, because Rob Ford has his own set of priorities, which are always Rob Ford–specific.)

And all of this, he managed in a year during which, for almost four months, he was effectively not really doing much of anything other than convalescing.

Rob Ford clearly likes being mayor. He doesn’t like doing the job of mayor, mind you, judging by how he does it. But he likes wearing the fancy chain and doing more or less as he pleases and having people take him seriously. So he’s going to stick around, health permitting, and make sure he’s in the public eye as much as humanly possible, act as obnoxious as possible at council meetings, and bide his time. He’s just spent four years being a blithering, incompetent, potentially criminal, lying, irresponsible, bigoted bully, but as he’s said himself, he’s not going to change.